Azores Wine Company Arinto Dos Açores Sur Lies Colheitas 3 Harvests
| Type of Wine | White |
|---|---|
| Country | |
| Region | |
| Appellation | Pico |
| Winery | |
| Grape | |
| Content (Alc) | 0.75 ltr (12%) |
| Drink window | 2024 - 2034 |
Low Stock
Only 1 left
Description
Wine from the Portuguese Azores means an Atlantic Ocean injection. Wine has been made in the Azores, a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean about 1,400 kilometers west of Lisbon, since the sixteenth century. But so little that you hardly ever see the wines from the Azores on the European mainland. They make around 20,000 liters per year, which is approximately the annual harvest in the Azores. It's all white and a lot of it is fortified with alcohol. The wine is made from typical Portuguese grapes, such as Verdelho and Arinto. What is also still unknown, but certainly not unloved by wine connoisseurs, is quality because the Azores have a great climate for wine. The sea breeze ensures healthy grape vines that do not require chemical intervention. Moisture, sun and a large difference in temperature make the wines of the Azores incredibly beautiful. With its unique and unusual terroir, the vines are planted in the rock cracks at the foot of the volcanic mountain, so close to the ocean that locals say you can "hear the crabs singing".
The vineyards are protected from strong salty ocean winds by rock walls known as “currai” but despite this, yields from the vineyards are almost literally at the high tide line extremely low and years (such as 2022 and 2023) experience extreme storms the vineyards have to deal with an abundance of salty seawater. From 2024 onwards, for this reason, they have started to raise more and more of their wines in a Solera system and the wines will become Non Vintage. With the extremely low yield, they can 'blend' different harvests/vintages via the Solera (such as a sherry) and in addition, the grapes and the high acidity are more than ideal for (long) aging in a Solera
This 100% Arinto dos Açores is an indigenous breed and therefore exclusive to the Azores Islands. Despite what the name suggests, the Arinto dos Açores is not related to the Arinto. When the grapes are perfectly ripe, they are harvested by hand and taken to the press in baskets with a capacity of 20 kg, where the entire bunches are pressed. The juice undergoes fermentation, after which the wine is allowed to age on its lees (sur lie) in small stainless steel tanks of 600 to 1000L and regular battonage takes place to ensure that contact with the lees remains optimal. The bottles are numbered and 4,400 bottles of this edition were made. See 360-degree image below for details.
As the name suggests, this Non Vintage (NV) edition of the Arinto Dos Açores Sur Lies Colheitas 3 Harvests consists of 3 harvests bottled from a Solera system. On the nose the wine is super fresh, pure and mineral aromas with a hint of grapefruit. Fresh and mineral in the mouth, smoke and salty notes with a very pleasant aftertaste. The salty notes in this wine and the direct influence of the sea make it a perfect accompaniment to oysters, grilled fish, salads and seafood. Beautiful wine that becomes even more wonderful with age.
FACT: In the 'Attachments' tab you will find the official fact sheet of this beautiful wine. We will send this to you automatically when you order this wine. The wine is stored in our conditioned Wine Warehouse and when you pick up the wine you will often receive a nice discount . You will see your discount immediately when you choose 'Collect' on the checkout page. We are located in Dordrecht almost next to the A16 with plenty of parking. Click here for our address.
Specifications
| Type of Wine | White |
|---|---|
| Country | Portugal |
| Region | Azores |
| Appellation | Pico |
| Winery | Azores Wine Company |
| Grape | Arinto dos Açores |
| Biological certified | No |
| Natural wine | No |
| Vegan | No |
| Drinking as of | 2024 |
| Drinking till | 2034 |
| Alcohol % | 12 |
| Alcohol free/low | No |
| Content | 0.75 ltr |
| Oak aging | No |
| Sparkling | No |
| Dessert wine | No |
| Closure | Cork |
| Parker rating | 93 |
| Tasting Profiles | Aromatisch, Droog, Fruitig, Houtgerijpt, Kruidig, Wit fruit |
| Drink moments | Lekker luxe, Met vrienden |
Professional Reviews
Parker
Rating
93
Release Price
$45
Drink Date
2021 - 2032
Reviewed by
Mark Squires
Issue Date
29th Jan 2021
Source
End of January 2021, The Wine Advocate
The 2019 Arinto dos Açores Sur Lies is mostly unoaked (20% of the juice was in neutral wood), bone dry (half a gram of residual sugar) and comes in at 12.4% alcohol. As much as I like the winery's "regular" Arinto, I usually find this to be a small step up. This year they are pretty close. More importantly, the style is rather different. It depends ultimately on what you like—and that's why you read the tasting notes, not just look at the scores. This is rounder and more caressing in texture but less zippy. The concentration is better and it soaks up the acidity a bit more, creating a rather different balance. While this more easily counters the acidity and seems less penetrating as a result, don't be confused—it has plenty of acidity. It's just a matter of perception and incremental change. Overall, this looks poised to age well. It will be interesting to see how it develops. There were 6,799 bottles produced.
The whites here are glorious. The somewhat eccentric and lighter-styled reds are another story, but the reputation of the winery rests with its white output. They are special and distinctive.
For 2019 (the vintage for most of these), there wasn't as much produced. This, said owner-winemaker António Moita Maçanita, is a low-yield year where the vines produced less than 1,000 kilograms per hectare (compared with 1,500 for the 2018 Vinha Centenária this issue, a relatively generous year). They are small-production wines in the best of circumstances, of course, which partly accounts for the price points. He compared 2019 to 2016 and 2014, "where the wines are normally very oily, very textured and intense [with an] Azores, ocean character." He added that the "2019 vintage in Azores was wet, low yielding and stormy" and said they lost part of one of their vineyards in the “criação velha” area near the ocean due to a storm.
Maçanita said that in Azores, they are under the "Proteção integrada regime," which translates to "sustainable." They also have four hectares under organic. And with the impossibility of using tractors, all vineyards are treated by hand. In regards to sulfites, he said they are "for now the only trustable, measurable analysis that demonstrates how a winery works. In this era of so much [misinformation] about natural/organic/biodynamic, SO2 levels [are] the only thing we can measure. We every year [are] the lowest or one of the lowest of Portugal....Our whites are half to one-third of average sulfites [for] whites. For me, it is relevant, and that is why I started to put it on the back label. Transparency yes, BS no...."
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Without a doubt the most famous and renowned Azorean winery is Azores Wine Company. They may have one of the most unique terroirs in the world, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and at the foot of the volcanic mountain Pico, the vineyards are planted in the fractures of the rocks, next to the sea, where you can " singing the crabs ", because there is more sun and warmth. The extraordinary Azores wine company was founded in 2014 by two Azoreans, Filipe Rocha and Paulo Machado, and the charismatic oenologist Rugby and the winemaker António Maçanita with only 12 hectares of vineyards , about 100 years old.
Wine from the Portuguese Azores means an Atlantic Ocean injection. Wine has been made in the Azores, a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean about 1,400 kilometers west of Lisbon, since the sixteenth century. But so little that you hardly ever see the wines from the Azores on the European mainland. They make around 20,000 liters per year, which is approximately the annual harvest in the Azores. It's all white and a lot of it is fortified with alcohol. The wine is made from typical Portuguese grapes, such as Verdelho and Arinto. What is also still unknown, but certainly not unloved by wine connoisseurs, is quality because the Azores have a great climate for wine. The sea breeze ensures healthy grape vines that do not require chemical intervention. Moisture, sun and a large difference in temperature make the wines of the Azores incredibly beautiful. With its unique and unusual terroir, the vines are planted in the rock cracks at the foot of the volcanic mountain, so close to the ocean that locals say you can "hear the crabs singing".
The vineyards are protected from strong salty ocean winds by rock walls known as “currai” but despite this, yields from the vineyards are almost literally at the high tide line extremely low and years (such as 2022 and 2023) experience extreme storms the vineyards have to deal with an abundance of salty seawater. From 2024 onwards, for this reason, they have started to raise more and more of their wines in a Solera system and the wines will become Non Vintage. With the extremely low yield, they can 'blend' different harvests/vintages via the Solera (such as a sherry) and in addition, the grapes and the high acidity are more than ideal for (long) aging in a Solera
This 100% Arinto dos Açores is an indigenous breed and therefore exclusive to the Azores Islands. Despite what the name suggests, the Arinto dos Açores is not related to the Arinto. When the grapes are perfectly ripe, they are harvested by hand and taken to the press in baskets with a capacity of 20 kg, where the entire bunches are pressed. The juice undergoes fermentation, after which the wine is allowed to age on its lees (sur lie) in small stainless steel tanks of 600 to 1000L and regular battonage takes place to ensure that contact with the lees remains optimal. The bottles are numbered and 4,400 bottles of this edition were made. See 360-degree image below for details.
As the name suggests, this Non Vintage (NV) edition of the Arinto Dos Açores Sur Lies Colheitas 3 Harvests consists of 3 harvests bottled from a Solera system. On the nose the wine is super fresh, pure and mineral aromas with a hint of grapefruit. Fresh and mineral in the mouth, smoke and salty notes with a very pleasant aftertaste. The salty notes in this wine and the direct influence of the sea make it a perfect accompaniment to oysters, grilled fish, salads and seafood. Beautiful wine that becomes even more wonderful with age.
FACT: In the 'Attachments' tab you will find the official fact sheet of this beautiful wine. We will send this to you automatically when you order this wine. The wine is stored in our conditioned Wine Warehouse and when you pick up the wine you will often receive a nice discount . You will see your discount immediately when you choose 'Collect' on the checkout page. We are located in Dordrecht almost next to the A16 with plenty of parking. Click here for our address.
| Type of Wine | White |
|---|---|
| Country | Portugal |
| Region | Azores |
| Appellation | Pico |
| Winery | Azores Wine Company |
| Grape | Arinto dos Açores |
| Biological certified | No |
| Natural wine | No |
| Vegan | No |
| Drinking as of | 2024 |
| Drinking till | 2034 |
| Alcohol % | 12 |
| Alcohol free/low | No |
| Content | 0.75 ltr |
| Oak aging | No |
| Sparkling | No |
| Dessert wine | No |
| Closure | Cork |
| Parker rating | 93 |
| Tasting Profiles | Aromatisch, Droog, Fruitig, Houtgerijpt, Kruidig, Wit fruit |
| Drink moments | Lekker luxe, Met vrienden |
Parker
Rating
93
Release Price
$45
Drink Date
2021 - 2032
Reviewed by
Mark Squires
Issue Date
29th Jan 2021
Source
End of January 2021, The Wine Advocate
The 2019 Arinto dos Açores Sur Lies is mostly unoaked (20% of the juice was in neutral wood), bone dry (half a gram of residual sugar) and comes in at 12.4% alcohol. As much as I like the winery's "regular" Arinto, I usually find this to be a small step up. This year they are pretty close. More importantly, the style is rather different. It depends ultimately on what you like—and that's why you read the tasting notes, not just look at the scores. This is rounder and more caressing in texture but less zippy. The concentration is better and it soaks up the acidity a bit more, creating a rather different balance. While this more easily counters the acidity and seems less penetrating as a result, don't be confused—it has plenty of acidity. It's just a matter of perception and incremental change. Overall, this looks poised to age well. It will be interesting to see how it develops. There were 6,799 bottles produced.
The whites here are glorious. The somewhat eccentric and lighter-styled reds are another story, but the reputation of the winery rests with its white output. They are special and distinctive.
For 2019 (the vintage for most of these), there wasn't as much produced. This, said owner-winemaker António Moita Maçanita, is a low-yield year where the vines produced less than 1,000 kilograms per hectare (compared with 1,500 for the 2018 Vinha Centenária this issue, a relatively generous year). They are small-production wines in the best of circumstances, of course, which partly accounts for the price points. He compared 2019 to 2016 and 2014, "where the wines are normally very oily, very textured and intense [with an] Azores, ocean character." He added that the "2019 vintage in Azores was wet, low yielding and stormy" and said they lost part of one of their vineyards in the “criação velha” area near the ocean due to a storm.
Maçanita said that in Azores, they are under the "Proteção integrada regime," which translates to "sustainable." They also have four hectares under organic. And with the impossibility of using tractors, all vineyards are treated by hand. In regards to sulfites, he said they are "for now the only trustable, measurable analysis that demonstrates how a winery works. In this era of so much [misinformation] about natural/organic/biodynamic, SO2 levels [are] the only thing we can measure. We every year [are] the lowest or one of the lowest of Portugal....Our whites are half to one-third of average sulfites [for] whites. For me, it is relevant, and that is why I started to put it on the back label. Transparency yes, BS no...."
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua...
Exclusive Content
Sign in to unlock professional wine reviews from world-renowned critics
Without a doubt the most famous and renowned Azorean winery is Azores Wine Company. They may have one of the most unique terroirs in the world, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and at the foot of the volcanic mountain Pico, the vineyards are planted in the fractures of the rocks, next to the sea, where you can " singing the crabs ", because there is more sun and warmth. The extraordinary Azores wine company was founded in 2014 by two Azoreans, Filipe Rocha and Paulo Machado, and the charismatic oenologist Rugby and the winemaker António Maçanita with only 12 hectares of vineyards , about 100 years old.
